1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to liquid ejecting heads and liquid ejecting apparatuses that eject a liquid from a nozzle by causing a piezoelectric element to deform, and particularly relates to piezoelectric elements.
2. Related Art
A liquid ejecting head that ejects liquid droplets from nozzles that communicate with corresponding pressure generation chambers by causing piezoelectric elements (piezoelectric actuators) to deform and produce pressure variations in the liquid within the pressure generation chambers is known. An ink jet recording head that ejects ink droplets as the liquid droplets can be given as a representative example thereof.
Such an ink jet recording head includes piezoelectric actuators, serving as piezoelectric elements, on, for example, one surface side of a flow channel formation plate in which the pressure generation chambers that communicate with nozzle openings is provided, and the ink droplets are ejected from the nozzles by driving the piezoelectric actuators, causing a vibration plate to deform, and producing pressure changes in the pressure generation chambers.
The piezoelectric actuators are each configured of a first electrode, a piezoelectric material layer, and a second electrode provided on the vibration plate (see, for example, JP-A-2009-172878).
A configuration in which a region of the piezoelectric material layer sandwiched between the first electrode and the second electrode serves as a functional portion, and the second electrode serves as a common electrode that is shared by a plurality of functional portions by being provided continuously across the plurality of functional portions, has also been disclosed.
However, there is demand for further improvement in the displacement properties of a piezoelectric element configured with the second electrode serving as a common electrode.
It should be noted that these problems are not limited to ink jet recording heads, and are also present in other liquid ejecting heads that eject liquids aside from ink.